Tag Archives: food

Nestled out in the beautiful Texas Hill Country are two parks that illustrate what life was like for our 36th President Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ). I’m going to write about LBJ State Park in this post. I’ll follow up tomorrow with the National Park and the Texas White House.

The state park is west of Austin out on Highway 290 about 13 miles west of Johnson City. If you’re coming in from the East I recommend turning onto Park Road 1 and coming into the State Park from the North Entrance. It is a nice drive through the surrounding farms and sort of gets you in the mood for the park you are about to visit.

LBJ State Park is home to the Sauer-Beckmann Living History Farm.

This farm is a working farm operated by two volunteers. They dress, act, talk, and work the farm as if it was 1915. 1915 was a good year for the farm, but I’ll let them tell you that story.

If you have an hour or two hang out at the main house and listen to the stories. One of my favorite was when the couple explained what they do with the milk. Did I mention that the lady still milks the cow every morning? She also gets eggs from the chicken coop. Back to the milk. They have a good demonstration in the kitchen about how they don’t waste the milk. It’s used for various dairy products for the farm and they do it all by hand. Ask about the milk. You’ll thank me.

The couple uses the vegetables from the garden and the meat from the farm to feed the volunteers/park employees at lunch each day. So expect some traffic around lunch time, but it is nice to see what they are able to do with a 1915 kitchen. It really makes you think.

The pictures don’t do this park justice, but that seems to be the case with every park I visit.

1. Honest Tea is donating bottled teas and lemonades.
2. Teas of Texas is donating bottled teas and waters.
3. A local wine importer is donating cases of malbec & chardonnay.
4. Saint Arnold Brewing Company is donating beer & root beer.
5. Gloria Corral will be at the event selling copies of her book “BBQ Lovers Guide to Austin.” She will donate 100% of the proceeds!
6. Austin Eats Food Tours is donating 10 passes for a free food tour. (Their tours generally range from $65-75 per tour.) We will have a table set up to raffle off the passes. All of the proceeds will be donated!
7. We will sell The Q Card at the event, & 100% of our sales will be donated!
8. Stephen Joseph, owner of Joseph’s Riverport Barbecue (Jefferson, TX), is donating 100 koozies & a case a rib rub for the event!
9. Junior’s Beer and Wine is donating 3 kegs of beer!
10. Shannon Lee Nelson will be the live-music entertainment!

We’ll have live music, drinks, and free chopped-beef sandwiches until they run out. (You are, of course, free to purchase any other food from la Barbecue, as they are open for regular business, as well.)

KVUE also has a list of ways to support West, TX which includes some info on the benefit at LA BBQ.

This benefit is legit. I know the organizers and trust them enough to publicize the event here. Every penny raised will go to families in West, TX.

From the BBQ blog:

Speaking of “every little bit,” let me be clear: EVERY SINGLE PENNY DONATED AT OUR BENEFIT WILL GO TO THE RELIEF EFFORTS IN WEST. People who defraud/trick/scam people during times of crisis and tragedy are sick, sick people. We hope you feel confident enough in us to help out. We have held several benefits like this in the past, and we have never taken a penny for ourselves. Any costs for the event will be borne by the people contributing. There will be no taking of a cut of the donations to cover expenses. I don’t know specifically where we will donate the money, but as soon as I do, I will announce it, so as to be transparent.

On my recent Texas State Parks day trip I stopped for lunch at a BBQ place in Lampasas, TX called Hart’s Firehouse BBQ. This joint has been open since 1965, with different owners along the way, and has a great atmosphere to go along with some good BBQ. It’s located at the intersection of highway 281 and Plum St in Lampasas, TX.

Firehouse BBQ in Lampasas, TX

We arrived right before lunch on Saturday and found ourselves second in line. The lady in front of us proceeded to order sandwiches for the entire staff of the city of Lampasas. As I waited in front of the “please order ahead for large orders” sign I took a look at the restaurant’s interior. It was a nice country homey place with plenty of seating and natural light. They have plenty of outdoor seating and parking which is always a plus.

Once the City Office staff were given their order we were up to bat. The first thing I noticed about the menu is they seem to like their spice. This is good for me, but I can understand how some people wouldn’t like the extra kick. For those people, you probably shouldn’t stop at a place with fire in the name.

I got the two meat BBQ plate with brisket and jalapeno sausage.

Two Meat plate at Firehouse (pic borrowed from texasbob.com)Patio area at Firehouse BBQ in Lampasas, TX

The brisket was good brisket. The sausage was good sausage. Nothing to brag about, but good food. The green beans and potato salad (jalapeno potato salad of course) were pretty darn good. The jalapeno in the potato salad was a nice touch and wasn’t too spicy at all. The spicy sauce was excellent and I recommend it for the sausage. Overall it was an ok place to stop between parks/hikes. Having been to as many great BBQ places as I have had the pleasure of eating at, it is difficult to impress me when it comes to Texas BBQ.

“Planning is underway for our 4th Annual Gettin’ Sauced! BBQ-sauce contest/festival! Today, we announce the first details: date and venue. This year’s event will be Saturday, September 28, at Hops & Grain Brewing in Austin. Put it in your calendar, b/c we’d love to see you there. We haven’t sent out the sponsorship/vendor/entrant information, but if you want to receive it when it’s available, email us!”